


Summer Camp

by whatdoidowiththisthingnow



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 11:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15639591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatdoidowiththisthingnow/pseuds/whatdoidowiththisthingnow
Summary: When Kara said “vacation,” she was picturing mojitos on the beach with a sandy paperback, not...camping.





	Summer Camp

**Author's Note:**

  * For [performativezippers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/performativezippers/gifts).



It’s not that she won’t have a good time here, it’s just that when Kara said “vacation,” she was picturing mojitos on the beach with a sandy paperback, not...camping.

She likes camping. Loves it, even.

But this wasn’t just camping, this was summer camping.

Friendship bracelets, and campfire songs, and capture the flag camping.

Forced socialization camping.

Kara drops their bags in the cabin lined with bunk beds, where a few people are milling about on the far end, “College wasn’t that long ago, Alex. Just pretend you’re back there, you know, when you actually liked people,” she smirks.

Alex whacks her with a pillow, “I never liked people.”

Her little sister puts on her best puppy dog eyes, “You like me…”

She climbs up to the top bunk and ignores the face, “Debatable.”

 _Whack_.

Alex snatches the pillow that just hit her in the face and tucks it under her head, “Thanks.”

“Alexxxx…” Her sister climbs up and props her elbows on the top bunk, “Come on. Are you going to be grumpy the whole time?”

She flips through the booklet of activities that was left at the foot of the bed, and it doesn’t all sound terrible. There’s paddle boarding, a zip line, archery—which she’s been unsuccessfully trying to convince J’onn to consider adding to their armory since she found out about Oliver Queen.

At least she’ll get to shoot something while she’s here, “I will try my best to behave.”

Kara sighs, “I will try my best to believe you.”

…

It wasn’t as horrible as Alex thought it would be, and since most people came with friends, they seemed to cling together in their groups, and she spent most of her time with Kara.

After settling in, they go canoeing, and are now sitting out in the middle of the the floating dock in the middle of the lake, overlooking most of the camp.

“I think I’m going to do karaoke tonight, do you want to come?”

Her sister has a great voice, but she’s fairly certain the alcohol-induced warbling of the other camp-goers isn’t going to be quite as pleasing, “No thanks. I think I’ll stay in.”

The pout she gets is expected, “You said you’d have fun!”

“No, I said I’d behave. Reading is behaving. Ask mom.”

Kara shakes her head, but looks up at her earnestly, “You are having fun though, right?” she asks quietly, “I know it’s not exactly your style, but I really thought you’d like it.”

Alex nudges her sister’s shoulder, “Yes. I’m having fun.”

…

After dinner, Kara heads out to karaoke, and Alex stays in the cabin.

Within ten minutes, she’s bored.

She checks the packet of information to see if there’s anything worth getting out of bed for.

_Night Hike & Star Gazing - 9:45pm_

That could be interesting.

Better than karaoke, or a flip-cup tournament, or wine and paint night—which she’d put good money on Kara making her do at least one of the three nights they’re here.

It’s already 9:30, so she hurries down the ladder, swaps her hoodie and sweatpants for jeans and her leather jacket—but she doesn’t have time to change out of the faded t-shirt.

When she gets to the meeting point, there’s no one around. She assumes she missed it, “I tried,” she mutters to herself.

“Night hike?”

She jumps at the voice and spins around. She meets the gaze of a woman she’d guess is about her age, with dark waves, big brown eyes, and wearing a black t-shirt under an oversized green cargo jacket, cargo pants, and a well-worn pair of boots, “Hello, sunshine,” she smirks.

Alex is confused until the woman points back at her chest, and she looks down at the bright orange shirt she didn’t change out of in her rush.

“Hello,” she notices the little gold badge on the jacket, “…officer?”

“Nah. Well, yes?” the woman thinks about it for another second, “Off duty,” she grins.

Oh boy, there are dimples in that grin. Dimples combined with something else that she can’t quite pinpoint, but it sets off a swarm of butterflies in her stomach.

She shakes her head a little, “Let me try that again,” and holds out her hand, “Maggie Sawyer. Volunteer Park Ranger.”

“Alex,” she takes her hand and shakes it, “So…not an officer?”

Maggie drops her hand and flashes the left side of her jacket open, revealing small block letters, “Gotham PD, normally.”

“Impressive.” Alex notices the logo now. And if she maybe also took advantage of the moment to inspect otheraspects of the officer-not-officer, well, that was Maggie Sawyer’s fault for flashing her in the first place.

“So. Night hike?”

Right. The entire reason she put pants on. She looks around, “Well I thought about it, but I think I missed my chance.”

Maggie runs a hand through her hair, “Not exactly,” she laughs lightly, “It’s hard to compete against free booze, ya know? Looks like it’s just you and me.”

“Oh. I mean, we don’t have to…”

“No, no! It’ll be fun. Come on.”

Before Alex can even respond, Maggie’s already headed up the hill toward the trailhead. She runs a couple paces until she’s back in-step.

Maggie looks over at her, “So how much do you know about astronomy?”

Alex can’t help but laugh, “A little…”

…

They chat on the way, but Alex is grateful Maggie doesn’t appear to be a small-talker. The silence between them is peaceful, not awkward.

She tells her she’s here with her sister, and that they’re from National City, and Maggie tells Alex that she heard their police department is starting a science division.

“I think that would be cool.”

Alex hasn’t met a lot of good people that want to be involved with the alien community, so that piques her interest. She keeps her voice casual as she asks, “Pro-alien, or against?”

Maggie scrunches up her face while she thinks, and Alex might think it was adorable if she wasn’t focused on whatever answer she’s about to give.

“Pro. They’re immigrants just like my parents were, and they don’t deserve to be judged based on that. But more than for or against, I’m fascinated. I want to know more about them, where they come from, what their customs are, why they came here.”

Now Alex is more confused, “So why law enforcement? Why not research? Anthropology?”

Her jaw clenches for a second, “Humans need protecting too.”

Interesting… “From aliens?”

“And each other.”

Fair point. The air around them feels heavier, so she tries to lighten the mood, “How about lizards?”

She’s not expecting a yelp, and she’s certainly not expecting the park ranger to grab her, and jump behind her back, “What—are you—Maggie?”

“Where’s the lizard?!”

Alex points to a rock about four feet away, where a small lizard—barely two inches long—is still and staring at them. Maggie’s right hand is vice-like on her shoulder, and the left one is on her ribcage. She assumes it was placed under panic, but it sends a chill down her side.

“I…uh…I don’t do lizards,” she manages.

Alex tries not grin, “He won’t hurt you.”

Both hands slide off her, and she can still feel the trail her fingertips made down her left side.

Maggie straightens her jacket and blushes a little, “Intellectually, I understand that. However…”

Alex steps forward, putting her body between the lizard and the park ranger, and gestures Maggie forward. She gives Alex and the offending creature an unnecessary extra three feet of space, and it’s adorable.

They keep going along the path, “So bears, mountain lions, Gotham’s biggest and baddest, _aliens_ ,” she ticks them off her fingers, “But no lizards. Good to know.”

Maggie shoves her lightly, “We all have our things, ok?”

“What about snakes?”

She glares at her, and Alex tries not to laugh, “I’m not teasing! I promise. I’m just asking so I can be on alert.”

She narrows her eyes, “Just lizards. Snakes are fine. We had those in Nebraska.”

Alex finds that comment interesting, considering they were nowhere near Nebraska now, “Spiders?”

“Ok, now it really seems like you’re mocking me!” she laughs.

The path opens up to a clearing, and the view of the mountains below them is amazing. The view of the stars is also amazing.

She’s not one to talk about herself, but she finds it easy to talk to the stranger she’ll never see after this week, “...fish,” she admits.

Maggie quirks her head, “Fish?”

Alex shrugs, “I don’t like fish.”

Maggie lays her jacket on the grass, sitting on one end, so there’s room for Alex to sit next to her.

“You’re from California. Don’t you go in the ocean?”

She sits down, suddenly aware of how close they are. The jacket might’ve been oversized on Maggie, but it was undersized for a two-person picnic.

“I do…but they usually steer clear of the surf, and I try not to think about it. I’ve encountered seals, dolphins, even sharks. But fish are scaly and slimy, and I don’t know. They’ve always freaked me out.”

Maggie leans back on her arms, and looks up at the sky, “Afraid of Nemo…” she smiles.

Alex mimics her posture, “We all have things.”

She looks over to see the little head tilt, and Maggie’s grin up to her eyes, looking at her warmly.

Forget the stars—she prefers this view instead.

…

At breakfast, Kara is staring, “What?”

“How was _your_ night?” she says pointedly.

Kara was asleep by the time Alex trudged back to the cabin, and Alex was short on words when they woke up this morning.

Alex sips her coffee, “Fine.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Nowhere.”

Kara crosses her arms and her eyes glow red.

“Ok, ok!” she whispers, “I went…on…the night hike, if you must know.”

“I must,” she beams. Then she tilts her head, and Alex heart skips a beat as she’s reminded of a certain park ranger with a similar head tilt, “Wasn’t that the astronomy one?”

She takes a bite of toast and wills her sister to get bored of this line of questioning, “Mhmm.”

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything embarrassing,” she whines.

Alex nearly chokes, then remembers telepathy is not actually one of her sister’s powers. Although sometimes she wonders… “How could I possibly embarrass you on an astronomy night hike? Except for maybe _showing up_ to the astronomy hike…”

“By being a smartypants, for one,” she glares, “Making the guide feel stupid. Or—”

She puts her mug down and reaches across the table, “Relax, Kara. It was fine.”

“You didn’t keep correcting the guide…?” she questions in disbelief.

Alex shakes her head, “I didn’t have to.”

Which is technically true…because they never got around to even talking about the stars, but she’s not sure she’s ready to tell her sister that.

Kara gives her a look that Alex ignores, and she tries to change the subject, “So, what do you want to do today?”

…

Kara picks archery—and Alex knows it’s only because she wants to do it. It’s a sweet gesture, actually.

She returns the favor by agreeing to join in the kickball tournament with all of the new friends Kara made at karaoke. They were definitely not people Alex would ever hang out with in her real life, but they were fun.

By the end of the night, Kara’s ready to head down to movie night, but Alex is unsure.

“You’re going to stay in again? Don’t you want to hang out with everyone and have a good time?”

Alex puts both hands on Kara’s shoulders, “I’m having a good time with you. I don’t care about anyone else.”

“That’s pathetic,” Kara teases.

She shoves her away, “Your face is pathetic.”

Alex grabs the program to see if anything else is going on that night, but slam poetry doesn’t really sound that good to her. She may or may not have noticed that there are no star-gazing night hikes scheduled either, “Alright,” she sighs, “I’ll go.”

…

The movie choice is _City Slickers_ , which Alex assumes is supposed to be clever.

She and Kara find a spot out in the grass, but her sister is quickly waved over by a few kickball tournament teammates, “Go on. I’ll save your seat,” she promises.

Kara seems torn between her sister and her friends, but Alex nudges her away, “It’s fine. Go.”

She watches her greet them all with friendly hugs, and she’s a little mesmerized by how easily Kara seems comfortable around total strangers.

Eventually, she finds herself tuning out of their ongoing chatter, and into the movie she doesn’t really care about.

“Hey, Sunshine.”

She can’t help the grin or the blush that creeps across her cheeks. She turns away from the kickball team a few blankets away on her left, to the person now seated very closely on her right, “Sawyer.”

The dimpled grin sets off those butterflies again, and Alex has to look away. She notices Maggie’s still got the over-sized jacket, but is now in jeans and boots, “Night off?”

“More or less. No one showed up to my night hike.”

She turns to her quickly, “Really?! But the schedule—it said—it wasn’t on our schedule.”

Immediately, she regrets those words, that was too much. She tries to recover more casually, “I mean…no one probably came, because it…it wasn’t…”

“On the schedule,” she says at the same time as Alex.

Now she feels super dumb, “Right.”

Maggie looks amused, but Alex feels her cheeks turning redder. She’s so out of practice. Flirting was never her forte, but this was a train wreck. She pretends to find the movie very interesting, and takes a few steadying breaths.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Maggie lean back on her arms, “It’s not like you would’ve come though, right?”

Alex waits a full three seconds before she looks over, but Maggie appears to be watching the movie. It’s barely above a whisper, “I might’ve.”

There’s no response, and she wonders if that was another stupid thing to say. Then Maggie shifts, and Alex is pretty sure she’s leaving—so when a shoulder presses into hers, she’s feels her stomach drop.

Her heart thumps loudly in her chest, and she prays her sister is too occupied to hear it. She doesn’t dare move, and she doesn’t trust herself to say anything else.

They sit like that for half an hour, but Alex’s arms are aching from her own weight and the added pressure of Maggie leaning onto her. She doesn’t want to move, but it’s not exactly the most comfortable way to watch a movie.

She tries to scan the surrounding area for anywhere better to sit, but looks over and finds Maggie watching her—not paying attention to the movie at all.

She gets a better idea, “Come with me,” she whispers.

The confused, furrowed brow she gets back is adorable—but the flicker in Maggie’s eyes momentarily shakes Alex’s confidence.

She swallows hard, but sticks to her original plan, and starts weaving through the crowd, back toward the main camp. Luckily, Maggie follows.

As they pass an unmonitored cooler near the edge of the crowd of campers, Alex grabs the first bottle she sees without a second glance, or breaking her stride.

Maggie hesitates for half a second, but Alex takes her hand, “Come on.”

She follows willingly, even as she asks, “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Alex stops outside the pool, and when she hands Maggie the bottle, “Hold this, please,” she raises both of her eyebrows.

“Skinny-dipping, Danvers?”

She forces the eyeroll, even though her mind is now going to be stuck on _that_ image for a while. She slips through the opening in the gate, and returns moments later with an armful of towels.

Maggie tilts her head, but says nothing. Just follows along on the spontaneous mission Alex has set them both on.

Back near the main camp, Alex finds what she was looking for—and sends a small thank you to the universe, for leaving it exactly where she remembered.

Maggie opens her mouth, but she holds up a finger to silence her, as she begins arranging the stack of towels in the bed of the old pick-up truck, with the faded camp logo, set on cinder blocks behind one of the buildings.

Once she’s satisfied, she holds out her hand, and Maggie passes her the glass bottle.

Alex puts it in her other hand with a sigh, then holds out the same hand again, waiting.

Maggie looks between her and the bottle and the truck, then back up at Alex, who’s still waiting, with a coy little smile.

She takes her hand, and Alex helps her in, then follows.

The two of them sit close to each other, leaning against the back of the pickup, but not saying much. Alex holds the bottle up to try to read it in the dark, “Let’s see what we’ve got…”

A second later, Maggie snorts out a laugh. She takes the bottle from Alex’s hands, inspects it more closely, then laughs harder, “It’s not…even…a twist off!” she manages between breaths.

Alex pouts, even as she laughs at her failure.

Maggie places the glass Coca-Cola bottle at her side, and turns to Alex’s pout, “A+ for effort, though. Really. Very smooth. All of—well, _most_ of it,” she giggles.

Alex crosses her arms over her chest. She thought at worst it would be cheap beer, and at best—if they were really lucky—maybe whiskey.

Or maybe—but her mind blanks. Every thought leaves her, as two hands cup her jaw gently but firmly, and soft lips press against her own. Her eyes close instinctively, and she’s only half-aware of how her hands get tangled up in Maggie’s hair.

But it’s over too soon, and when that contact is gone, it only leaves Alex wanting more, “Maggie…”

She finds those big brown eyes staring back at her, “We only have three days…I didn’t want to miss my chance.”

Alex kisses her again, breaking apart as she grins, “…very smooth.”

…

 _Whack_.

Alex groans and grabs the pillow lying on her face, then throws it back to where she guesses it came from.

“Heyyy!”

Even half-asleep, it must’ve been a pretty good guess.

She reluctantly opens her eyes, trying to adjust to the sunlight streaming through the windows.

“Where did you go last night?!”

“Good morning to you too, Kara,” she yawns.

 _Whack_.

She snatches the pillow away, throwing it across the room for good measure, “Stop hitting me!”

Kara puts her hands on her hips, “We’re supposed to go rock-climbing, and it starts in 10 minutes!”

Alex checks her watch, “Crap! Ok,” then scrambles down the ladder, and changes into her clothes as fast as she can, “I’ll be ready. I promise. We won’t miss it.”

…

On the way, Kara asks a billion questions about where Alex was last night, and Alex tries to sell her on some story about meeting up with friends from the night hike—not entirely a lie—and losing track of time—also not a lie.

She sort of buys it, and then once the instructor starts going over procedure, she’s too focused to hold a conversation.

Alex is equally focused—until she’s halfway up the face of the rock, calling down to her sister, belaying on the ground, and spots a very familiar face next to her.

She hurries down, but by the time she gets released from the safety harness, Kara’s talking a mile a minute to the park ranger, who seems to be enjoying every moment of the conversation.

“Kara, I—”

“Alex! This is Maggie. She’s a volunteer park ranger here. Isn’t that cool? She was just telling me—” Alex shoots a panicked look at Maggie, but is met with smug little smirk, “that she once saved a baby fox from drowning! Isn’t that amazing!”

Her heart slows enough that words can form now, “That is amazing.”

“Thanks.”

Still, that cocky little grin. Alex bites her lip, “Rock climbing today, ranger?”

“Nope. Just keeping an eye on the campers,” but her eyes seem to be fixed on only one, particular camper.

Alex remembers her sister standing there. Remembers her training. Tries to slow her heartbeat. Before she can say anything, there’s a thud from a few feet away, then a yelp—and all three of them turn their heads and hurry over to the commotion.

“What happened?”

Alex kneels down next to the guy on the ground, and even though he’s sitting up, there’s a pretty big cut on his forehead. She looks up at Maggie, “He’s gonna need to go to the hospital.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“I…uh…” that’s too hard to explain, “I went to med school.”

Maggie looks like she’s about to say something, then doesn’t, “My truck’s not far, but I can’t get it all the way over here.”

Alex can read Kara like a book, knowing they’re about three seconds from a Supergirl appearance—but out here, so far from National City, it would draw too much attention.

“Kara and I can get him to your truck. You go ahead of us and call an ambulance.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, we can get him there.”

Alex knows Kara will be doing most of the heavy lifting, and she will be there for show, but it gets Maggie to agree.

One of the camp instructors goes with Maggie, while Alex stays with another and tries to get something on the guy’s head to stop the bleeding.

Together they get him to Maggie’s truck and back to camp, where an ambulance is already waiting.

Alex watches with the crowd of other campers that’s emerged as Maggie and an instructor climb into the ambulance with the guy.

He only needs stitches, so she allows herself to be a little selfishly bummed out at the sight of the park ranger—and she was really hoping, her date for their final night—leaving in a cloud of dust.

A nudge on her hip breaks her concentration, “Do you think we attract drama?” Kara grins.

Alex loops an arm around her waist, “Yeah, probably,” she laughs.

…

They spend the day doing the activities that they still hadn’t tried yet, and Alex is distracted by every flash of green, every other park ranger, every other brunette—hoping the face she’s looking for will materialize before her, but she doesn’t see her the rest of the day.

That night, there’s some big party to celebrate the end of the weekend.

Alex doesn’t feel motivated to go, but Kara is excited, so she promises to at least stay for a little while.

It’s a theme party—a masquerade—and it’s fun to dress up, even if she’s disappointed that the one person she was looking forward to seeing is probably still sitting in a hospital, over an hour away, filling out paperwork.

They dance and drink, and it’s fun, but she needs a break. She sneaks out one of the doors behind the bar to get some fresh air.

A silver mask catches her eye, and she watches as the figure gets closer to her, her heart beating faster with every step, confirming her suspicions.

“You weren’t leaving, were you?”

The alcohol makes her braver, but the words less coherent, “You clean up nice. With the shoes…and the hair…and—”

Maggie’s hand takes hers and silences her instantly, “You look good, too, Alex.”

Maybe the weekend will turn out better than she’d hoped. She feels the butterflies in her stomach, and leans in slowly—but their masks knock together before their lips even stand a chance.

They both laugh, and she drops her forehead onto Maggie’s shoulder for a second, before straightening again, “Maybe we can dance first?”

…

 _Whack_.

She’s gonna kill Kara.

She reaches a hand to her face, and startles when she realizes the thing that woke her up was not a pillow—but a limb.

It takes a minute to get her eyes to adjust, because the sun is barely up. She carefully lifts the arm from her face, and turns to the body next to her.

The familiar orange shirt, and head of dark curls at her side melts her whole body. She snuggles closer, and closes her eyes with a grin.

…

When she wakes up the second time, the bed is colder, and empty, and she now realizes she’s on the bottom bunk—Kara’s bed.

It’s a little disorienting.

The door opens a second later, and her sister walks in and hands her a cup of coffee, “Morning.”

She takes it, more confused than ever, “Hey…”

“You’re welcome, by the way,” she beams.

Alex looks up at her, and Kara gestures to the bed, grinning mischievously.

“Right. Thanks? Um…”

She contemplates the best way to ask, _Do you know what happened to the park ranger I swear I fell asleep cuddling last night?_

“Morning, sunshine.”

Before the thought makes it from her head to her mouth, Maggie Sawyer strolls up next to her little sister, and they share a look that makes Alex very concerned about how late she slept in.

The heat in her chest radiates, and she can't help the grin on her face, “…morning,” she mumbles, avoiding any eye contact with her little sister, who she can feel buzzing in her peripheral.

“You _do_ like people,” she squeals.

Alex’s heart swells as she gives an exasperated look to her sister, “Kara? A minute?”

“Right! Right!”

Once she’s gone, Maggie sits on the bed next to her and kisses her chastely, “Hey.”

“Hi,” Alex grins, “Sorry about Kara. She cannot be contained.”

“That’s ok,” she laughs.

“So…last day…”

It seems silly, she knows, but she doesn’t want to leave. She wants to stay in this blissful bubble forever.

“Last day,” Maggie repeats.

She leans into Maggie’s side, and drops her head on her shoulder, “Think we can move Gotham closer to National City?”

The arm around her waist is warm and perfect, and she’s pretty sure she could sit here, just like this, all day, “Yeah. Maybe.”

Alex remembers their first night, “So the science division…”

Maggie laughs, and Alex lifts her head to look up at her, “I’m definitely considering that more seriously…”

…

It’s a couple years later, standing on the tarmac of the National City International Airport, next to her sister, when that weekend plays through her mind again.

She’s going over the most recent alien attack with Kara, and notices the techs at one end don’t belong to the DEO at all.

Ready to fight for jurisdiction, she strides confidently over to the officer squatting near her crime scene. Her heart races before her head can even fit the pieces together.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing at my crime scene?”

“Anyone ever tell you all you Feds sound the— _Alex_?”

She can't help but laugh a little at the surprise written all over her face, “I know…I know…it’s like we all watch the same bad movies together at Quantico.”

Maggie drops her head in a laugh, and then eyes Alex slowly, flashing those dimples that make her go weak in the knees, “Quantico? Or summer camp?”

Alex can feel the electricity between them spark exactly like it did the first time they met. That feeling from long ago, now pulsing through her veins.

But Maggie eyes flash, and she puts her hands on her hips, “The airport is my jurisdiction.”

Alex steps into her space, feeling a familiarity settle in like it had never left in the first place. She arches a single eyebrow, “Oh yeah? Your jurisdiction ends where I say it does.”

…


End file.
